- February 2019
Smorgasbord is back for Lent!
The Fletcher Players present a fresh selection of brand new student writing at the Corpus Playroom. Running on and off since 1997, Smorgasbord provides writers a platform to test their writing on an audience, gives actors and the directors the chance to showcase their talents, and lets audiences engage with Cambridge's talents in a Q&A session.
Come along for a relaxed, interesting night which will unearth some previously unseen gems.
- February 2019
‘But you seem so… So human, so… alive. Truth is I’ve never stood this close to an android before. If I hadn’t known, I wouldn’t have been able to tell’.
Intelligent androids are slowly replacing vacuum cleaners, dishwashers and washing machines on the shelves of electronics shops all over the UK. They are now a common household item, just like a kettle or a toaster.
Curious what the whole AI craze is all about, Ian, a university student, purchases one of such androids for himself. When his new mechanical helper emerges from its refrigerator-sized box, Ian begins to question if the thing in front of him is really a machine. Can something so human-like really be made of metal and plastic? But if even he is having trouble believing it... will his friend Alice ever guess that his new ‘roommate’ is not what ‘he’ seems? And what will happen if she treats ‘him’ like a human for too long?
- February 2019
'How do you want to live here? I mean we could come and go and lead separate lives. Or we could really live together. What do you think?'
It’s 1983. Di, Viv & Rose move into a university house and form the unlikeliest of friendships. From their living-room they navigate the many highs and lows of their new found adulthood, and roller-coaster through life encountering sex, loss and all kinds of love. In this daring exploration of friendship and womanhood, spanning 30 years, Di, Viv & Rose reveal the intricacies of relationships, and test their bond to the point of breaking.
- February 2019
After a sell out run last year, Cambridge's least impressive quiz teams are back!
‘University Challenged’ is a new quiz gameshow format taking elements of University Challenge, QI, Just A Minute, Mock the Week and Have I Got News For You to take a comical look at the nature of knowledge. Two teams battle for points handed out in a not entirely logical manner by a Jeremy Paxman-esque host, overseeing events like a deadpan overlord.
The teams are comprised of four comedians, changing each night. With no specialist subjects, and no right to ever even pretend to be on a quiz show, how will the teams of rag tag comedians fare when their wit is put to the test?
- February 2019
Gail Summerfield, one of Britain’s “most” loved and “least well known” personalities is back in the Corpus Playroom for her third Farewell Tour! She’s got a lot of stories to tell and you've got a lot of problems for her to solve! Put your listening ears on and get ready to learn from a thrice divorced and once annulled Tour-De-Force as she bestows upon you her top tips to a happy life. Voted “Milton Keynes’ Seventh Best Florist”, there isn’t much this energetic and VERY talented 47-year-old can’t do! I hope you’ve got that pinot chilling, girls, and you’ve left the men at home, because Gail’s here which only means one thing- it’s party time! You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, and you’ll be touched, intimately, by Gail Summerfield.
- February 2019
Adapted from Virginia Woolf’s novel, 'The longest and most charming love letter in literature’ playfully constructs the figure of Orlando as the fictional embodiment of Woolf’s close friend and lover, Vita Sackville-West. Orlando, a beautiful charismatic nobleman, enjoys a lifetime of adventures, love and debauchery, spanning five centuries. At the midpoint of this period, whilst serving as ambassador to Constantinople, Orlando wakes from a seven-day sleep to find he has become a woman.
A dreamy adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s famous tale, Sarah Ruhl’s Orlando is a magical and poetic dance between gender and through time, a fantastical world in which courtly movement and biographical narration combine to tell the story of someone who lives outside of human expectations, and enjoys twice the experience that humanity has to offer.
- January–February 2019
'love me love me, you have to love me, you'
Hailed as ‘Britain’s ultimate playwright’, Caryl Churchill’s Drunk Enough to Say I Love You is a chilling examination of masculinity, imperialism, and foreign policy. First performed at the Royal Court, the play sees Guy leave his wife and kids for Sam. The two embark on an exciting rollercoaster of sex, power, and war. It’s chaotic, poetic, and exhilarating – but how long can it last?
- January–February 2019
'Martin, did you ever think you'd come back from your splendid life, walk into your living room and find you had no life left?'
Martin is turning 50 - as a celebration, his friend Ross is coming to interview him for a special TV feature. Awarded a top architecture prize, graced with the career opportunity of a lifetime, happily married with a son he loves, Martin's life is idyllic.
But over the course of their conversation, a distracted Martin slowly begins to reveal a sordid secret he's been keeping which threatens to tear it all apart.
Blurring lines between the animal and 'civilised' worlds, this classic Albee play explores the limits of desire, fidelity and taboo with his trademark linguistic athletics and family fireworks.
- January 2019
Self-diagnosed important young mind Leo Reich (who you may recognise from being destined for stardom) has never been romantically loved by anyone. The story of what led him to make this brave artistic decision has infamously never, in living memory, been told onstage. How could this potential cultural icon, having been described as 'irrepressibly magnetic' (by Varsity), and 'provably non-magnetic' (by modern science), not have been the subject of dozens of elegantly penned odes? Have people not seen his 'rockin bod' (modern science again)? Or is he, possibly, 'fundamentally unloveable'(weirdly, Varsity again)? The greatest minds of every era have grappled with these questions, and now it is Leo's turn.
Join the beautiful angel himself for an hour filled with funny standup, witty characters, humourless introspection, and potentially a song.
★★★★★ (Broadway Baby) ★★★★★ (ThreeWeeks) ★★★★★ (Varsity) ★★★★★ (EdFringe Review) ★★★★★ (Cherwell) ★★★★ (The Scotsman, clearly in an effort to be original, which NO ONE is buying).
- January 2019
"You breaker of mended things. You cruel cactus lover. You useless tangled slinky toy"
Another year, another string of disappointments for BirthdA Girl. Bored, bewildered and staring straight down the barrel of adolescence, she has little choice but to ponder out loud on the nature of friendship, grief, solitude and what it means to enter womanhood via the margins.
Comprising a series of short tragically-comical monologues told from the point of view of a young woman with Asperger's, 'BirthdA' provides a portrayal of the dilemmas of youth in equal parts familiar and bizarre.
- January 2019
“Your skin oughtn't to curl - ought it - when he just comes near you- ought it? That's wrong, ain't it? You don't get over that, do you - ever, do you or do you?”
The city. A woman is restless. A woman is suffocating. A woman is silenced.
The woman revolts.
It’s America’s Golden Age, a time of happiness, freedom and prosperity––or is it? For one young woman in the industrial, male-dominated world of the 1920s, life is nothing like she hoped it would be. Restless and unfulfilled in a passionless marriage and an unwanted motherhood, she finds her only joy in the form of an illicit love affair. But when reality sets in and she must return to her routine existence, she’ll go to any lengths "to be free".
Inspired by the infamous 1927 murder trial of Ruth Snyder, Machinal is a riveting look at the danger that can come from a life unlived.
- January 2019
What's black and white and red all over? A clowns nose buried in the jobs section of the local newspaper :o(
Unpaid comedian Louisa Keight debuts her drag persona, Jinkies, in this brand new one-woman show. Join us for a night of absurd character comedy from a "stitch-inducingly funny" (Varsity) ex-Footlight.
Previous praise for Louisa’s work:
"An exciting and invigorating form" - 5, EdFringe Review
"Sets the bar high" - 5, The Tab
"Faultless" - TheatreBath
"[A] young comedian" – Chortle
- January 2019
“Suddenly I felt very Shakespearean. Very Game of Thrones.
No longer was I the son of Stephen Bewley.
I was the bastard son of Stephen Bewley.”
Charlie is on a train from Glasgow to London Euston when he finds out that his mum is a brilliant liar. The man he has called ‘Dad’ for 21 years is not, in fact, his biological father. With one Dad in remission from prostate cancer, and another about to be released from HMP Brixton, Charlie is not sure of anything anymore.
Funny and moving in equal measure, 'Bastard' is a brand new one-man play about fatherhood, inheritance, and a talking unicorn.
- January 2019
Remember that incredible song that blew the roof off at Kim’s House Party 2k12? Neither does Archie, really, but he's pretty confident we can piece it back together...
The multi award-winning ex-Footlight brings a new hour of sharp and original musical comedy to Cambridge. Because nostalgia used to be cool.
Winner: IYAF Best of the Brighton Fringe Comedy Award 2018
Finalist: So You Think You're Funny 2017
Best Newcomer: Musical Comedy Awards 2017
2nd Place: Musical Comedy Awards 2018
Shortlisted: BBC New Comedy Award 2018
“Immense talent and fantastic energy” ***** (EdFestMag)
- January 2019
Agatha Christie meets The 12 Days of Christmas. At a party in a mysterious house on a remote island, the guests are bumped off in suspiciously Christmassy ways. Murder, mayhem and laugh-out-loud comedy!
- December 2018
- November–December 2018
A typical middle-class family's Christmas dinner is shaken up when a homeless man mistaken for Santa Claus gets invited in by a young girl. A farce that will get you thinking: who will carve the turkey, who will win monopoly and who will stay in the spare room?
- November–December 2018
Ritual madness has descended upon Thebes. Dionysius is demanding obedience at all costs - but is his chaos less liberating than it first appears? With Pentheus’ own mother lost to Bacchic celebration, the King is determined to shame and punish the new God. Civilisation declares war on instinct as the divine tears up the mortal.
This visceral new production provokes uneasy questions and demands uneasy answers. Explore the fear of the unknown as this divine tragedy exposes the cracks in our own moral codes. Our fundamental values are broken down in this horrifyingly compelling examination of society and the self.
- November 2018
Elliott has just turned twenty-three, and still isn’t completely sure how being a man works. And now his comedy partner's just left him. Therapy is expensive so instead this show exists.
Join bumbling nerd, delicate lover and Cambridge Footlight Elliott Wright for a brand new hour of surreal and acerbic stand-up, as he delves into masculinity, relationships, self-identity, heartache, anxiety and the endless turmoil of looking like a sainsbury’s basics version of himself.
Previous praise:
‘quickly had the room in stitches’- Varsity ★★★★ ½
‘Like the weird uncle at a family Christmas, Wright united and energised the audience as a whole – only occasionally traumatising individuals’- The Tab
DarkChat Edinburgh Fringe Awards 2016: Best Comedy Performance- NOMINATED
- November 2018
A dark comedy about figuring out where everything went wrong with every stranger you've ever slept with.
Tom is looking back on all his lovers trying to figure out where it all went wrong. Was the language barrier too much? Did they cheat on him? Were they simply an old man looking to pay a young man to lick their feet?
Join Tom as he learns the lessons from his loves, suffers the pain of where it went wrong, and sees if there is any hope in loving at all.
- November 2018
Americans Zack and Abby are bright, young and recently married. He’s a doctor combating infant disease. She’s an actress, also teaching yoga. It’s just before Christmas and they’re living the expat highlife in bohemian Belleville, Paris.
It’s all a little too perfect.
- November 2018
Test Batch Special is a semi-improvised comedy drama set in a cricket commentary booth featuring a whole cast of guest characters that nobody on stage knows anything about.
Its the long awaited England versus New Zealand Test Match - or the "Lashes" - and Beaver Bassenthwaite and Suzie Redmonds, are as ever here to provide you with ball by ball commentary. Every slip catch, every reverse sweep and every badly sung version of Sweet Caroline, they're here to soothe your radio airwaves. But with Beaver considering retirement, Suzie contemplating management consultancy and a ball-tampering scandal involving the CIA, will cricket ever be the same again?
Partly written, partly improvised, Test Batch Special is about what happens when a tightly written script dissolves into chaos in front of your eyes and still manages to seem more professional than an England batting collapse.
Praise for Test Batch Special:
"Everyone's got something to hide except me and my offshore tax return" - Beaver Bassenthwaite, 2018
"The bowler's Holding, the batsman's Willey" - Brian Johnston, 1976
"They think its all over, it is now" - Wrong Sport, 1966
- November 2018
This new musical tells the story of Heathcliff and Cathy, two lovers almost psychically bound to each other but continually thwarted by family, society, and God. Heathcliff has just returned to Wuthering Heights after mysteriously disappearing for several years having made his wealth, but Cathy is now bound by other circumstances. The sun shines over the moors, but inside the storm of vengeance is brewing. In a retelling of Emily Bronte’s classic, this new musical tells the story of a passion which transcends life – and death – itself.
Listen to excerpts from this new musical on soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/michael-bascom/sets/cathy-a-retelling-of-wuthering
- November 2018
On the South Devon coast, the Haussman family home stands dilapidated and derelict. Its chief occupant is Judy, an aging, anarchic hippy who – after a minor cancer operation – holds court, welcoming her children home. Libby, accompanied by her daughter, Summer, is waspish and resentful. Nick is flighty and nervous, a former drug addict with little to call his own. Over a few sweltering months, the Haussmans hash out their past differences, remember family dramas and infatuations, and day-drink the summer away.
Dealing with the legacy of the 1960s and the Baby Boomer generation, Stephen Bereford’s debut play captures the spirit of a generation, and the consequences in their wake.
- November 2018
With a lineup of Cambridge's hilarious female and nonbinary comedians, the Footlights Lady Smoker brings you the funniest songs, sketches, monologues and stand-up in an hour of non-stop, back-to-back fun-filled hilarity. The material is always original and always varied. It can be soft and silly, rude and spiky, wordy and nerdy or a little surreal; whatever the style, it's always 'uproariously funny' (Varsity).
- November 2018
An unassuming family accidentally get caught up in the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Unsure to act, but keen to stop the skewed election, they hatch a plan to Catfish the government with fake profiles to trick the algorithm, all from the spare bedroom of Gran's house. A new black comedy exploring the darker side of tech, how could you not heart react?
- November 2018
Two boys caught between their dreams of becoming famous football players and their need to join the resistance.
Two doctors who cannot reconcile with their political ideologies and personal tragedies.
A young girl unable to decipher reality.
Unfolding in the violence and confusion of occupied Kashmir, the djinns are many and appear to disrupt friendships and talks of peace.
Only stories remain to be told. And retold.
*
The Djinns of Eidgah set in occupied Kashmir is a haunting, heartfelt and political play written by Abhishek Majumdar and combines multiple storylines. Two friends Bilal and Khaled are caught between their dreams of becoming famous footballers and their political need to join the resistance. Bilal’s traumatised sister Ashrafi struggles to cope mentally and regularly visits Dr.Baig and Dr.Wani’s clinic for therapy. The two doctors cannot reconcile with their individual political ideologies, the duty to their clinic and the way they should accept their children’s futures, either as dead militants or dead children killed by the standing army. As the drama unfolds, two soldiers stationed in the occupied state are unable to read the complex chain of events and must choose between the misery of the people they encounter and what they have been trained to believe. The djinns are many and appear to terrorise and derail tales of friendship and talks of peace. The play depicts the confusion and violence in occupied regions and at the same time redeems it through the use of folklore, friendly banters about football and sincere political dialogue.
- November 2018
Get ready for ‘Unsung Heroes’ - join us as the BCC™ take a deeper look at the Unsung Heroes of Wider Rochester. A night to celebrate the overlooked voices of our society.
We human-people focus too much on worshipping celebrities, the luminaries who quite frankly don’t do much. Eg. Paris Hilton (excluding her culturally groundbreaking work on ‘Paris Hilton’s My New BFF). We neglect the average Joe’s whose work goes unrecognised.
‘Unsung Heroes’ transforms ‘nonentities’ to ‘celebutantes’, all whilst making us laugh, giggle, and maybe even snort. Who knows?
A celebration of these characters will redefine what we deem as important, paying homage to characters like wise Wendy from the Co-op Bakery, Brenda from the PSA or Susie from HR - what would we do without Susie?
Head down to the Corpus Playroom for an absurd hour from Cambridge Comedy regulars and introducing new comedians, bringing to life a series of wacky, silly and endearing characters whose voices will finally be heard.
- October–November 2018
It’s Halloween and everyone’s on high alert for what this coven of witches are up to. Double double toil and trouble-ing? Fire burn and cauldron bubble-ing? Or maybe just supernaturally-inclined women trying to have a nice night in? Who knows.
Move over Harry Potter, Witches is a brand-new sketch show from a selection of the finest female and non-binary student minds. Get your broomsticks, black cats and spooky selves down to the Corpus playroom for a night of fresh sketches and character comedy. Although take heed, ye who seek them - with this many women left unsupervised, things are going to get darn scary.
The witches are here, they’re hilariously sincere, and they’re ready to obliterate their bad rep from William Shakespeare.
(Please note the cast and crew are not responsible for any audience members being cursed and/or transformed into a toad)
- October–November 2018
Siblings Daniel and Peppy have lived in the same house in South East London since they were children. Now adults, they are recluses; surrounded by a lifetime of memories lost in the chaos. They are isolated from the outside world until, following a misunderstanding, that world rushes in.
Deborah Bruce's humorous yet moving play reminds its audience of the importance of showing people the simplest kindness. It provides an insight into those left behind by society, and leaves the audience on a gentle tone of hopefulness.
- October 2018
Featuring performers who are all brand new to the comedy scene, Footlights bring you the funniest songs, sketches, monologues and stand-up in an hour of non-stop, back-to-back fun-filled hilarity. The material is always original and always varied. It can be soft and silly, rude and spiky, wordy and nerdy or a little surreal; whatever the style, it's always 'uproariously funny' (Varsity).
- October 2018
All was peaceful at Bedheads Record Company. Who needs sex, drugs, and rock and roll when you have a keyboard with seven different demo tunes and a mildly inept but dedicated office staff? The company even had a musician featured on the Now That’s What I Call Music 2011 album (although this was, unfortunately, the result of a clerical error.)
But when the unexplained death of one of the company’s star acts lands Bedheads two producers in prison, everything changes. As new evidence arises, the police reopen the case - but will it be enough to save Bedheads? Will the law prevail? Does a miscarriage of justice provide good source material for a top 40 chart hit?
Bedheads is a brand-new narrative interactive murder mystery musical sketch comedy based around the alibis of all of the dark and quirky individuals that emerge from Bedheads Records! Join us as we dive into the lives of these wacky and wonderful characters, and bring the killer to justice. Everyone knows that the music industry is cutthroat, but not like this.
- October 2018
Charles James has been sentenced to death for killing a cop. To him, life is a joke and death is a joke. Humour is how Charlie deals with a life gone bad. When the warden of a state penitentiary tries to convince him to donate a kidney to his sick son, humor is how he deals with the many people around him who all of a sudden want something from a dead man walking. All hell breaks lose in this play, including surprise visits from his mother, an unlikely friendship with the penitentiary reverend. In this dark comedy, we deal with the ethical implications involved with capital punishment, organ donation, and the interaction of the two.
- October 2018
Join us for this evening of new writing! The Fletcher Players bring you Smorgasbord: a festival showcasing some of the most exciting and original extracts from emerging student playwrights.
Hosted at the Corpus Playroom, this is a casual opportunity for writers to have their work performed on-stage, with the chance for the pieces to be discussed and critiqued afterwards by the audience.
Unlike many other writing festivals, there are no limits to the works being presented – they can be complete plays, extracts from a larger piece, or rough first drafts – as long as they are between 5 and 10 minutes in length.
- October 2018
“It’s this sort of time you’d turn on the radio and hope for a snow day.”
Alone, abroad and in the midst of a housing crisis, it only takes one missed train for Allie to lose all sense of time.
Sustaining themself on panic-bought oranges and the sounds of the sixties, Allie dithers between frantic farce and semi-lucid lethargy in the confines of a budget hotel room, when on discovering seven blank postcards bought at a happier time, they resolve to write home - return address or not. But an awkward ‘wish you were here’ soon begins to unravel a fragile web of uneasy relationships and invasive anxieties.
Merging the boundaries between delusion and reality, theatre and film, ‘I’m Having a Wonderful Time in Baden-Baden’ offers a comical, poignant and innovative take on how we communicate when we’re on our own.
- September–October 2018
‘We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.’
It’s 2018. Oscar Wilde died over a century ago. Does he still have a place in our hearts? In a bold modern production of the classic comedy-melodrama, Lady Windermere’s Fan, the play and its fin-de-siecle wit and sensibilities are lovingly interrogated, even as they are performed.
Lady Windermere’s Fan was first performed in 1892. Half-comic, half-serious, It tells the story of Lady Windermere, her husband, and a mysterious ‘other woman’, who may not be all that she appears.
The University of Cambridge Asia Theatre Tour, founded in 2017 is a student run theatre company that performs a British play to venues around the UK and East Asia: China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan. The tour takes place in September over a 3 week period with rehearsals/tour preparation in August. As well as performances, the tour has a big educational focus, engaging audiences directly with the play through workshops and classes. Workshops are not limited to the play and also encompass production, directing and other plays/writers (e.g Shakespeare).
It is a truly fantastic opportunity to put together a production that will be staged internationally whilst travelling around East Asia on a highly subsidised tour. We have the support of Emma Thompson as our patron and participants will be working with some awesome venues as well as people in each of these countries. We currently have the support of people from Cambridge Youth Summer Camp, the British Council and UNESCO to name a few organisations. It's an unmissable project if you're interested in theatre beyond Cambridge, education and culture/cultural diplomacy. As it is a relatively new tour, there is a lot of scope to bring in your own ideas that will influence the future of the tour. We also hope that it offers a chance for Cambridge students to mutually learn from the diversity of people encountered on tour.
